VAN BUREN COUNTY, Mich. – A Michigan man was given the wrong lottery ticket, but the mistake led him to a $1 million prize.
The 45-year-old Van Buren County man purchased his winning ticket at the Speedway gas station at 855 South Kalamazoo Street in Paw Paw, according to Michigan Lottery officials.
When he was buying his ticket, the cashier at the gas station gave him the wrong one by mistake.
“I play Cashword tickets occasionally, but purchasing this ticket was a total fluke,” said the lucky player. “I asked the cashier for a different game, and she mistakenly handed me this Major Cashword ticket instead. When she realized she gave me the wrong ticket, she offered to give me the game I’d asked for, but I told her I would just keep the Major Cashword ticket instead.”
Then, when he scratched the ticket the following day, he thought he was being pranked.
“The next morning, I scratched the barcode and my wife scanned the ticket on her Lottery app,” the player said. “When $1 million came up on the screen, I felt like I couldn’t breathe! I thought it was some sort of prank at first.”
Here’s what he decided to do to keep the ticket safe:
“Once I realized it was real, I put the ticket in a jar and buried it in the yard because I was so paranoid something would happen to it if I kept it in the house,” the player said.
He recently claimed his prize and decided to receive it as a one-time lump sum payment of about $634,000. He plans to pay bills, pay off his home and save for retirement.
“Lottery players find interesting ways to keep their tickets safe after scoring a big win,” said Lottery Commissioner, Suzanna Shkreli. “Burying the ticket in a Mason Jar is certainly a unique way to hang on to a winning ticket! Congratulations to the lucky winner on his $1 million buried treasure!”
